Posts by Oengus

If I can't remove the SIM, I can "Close" the account. If they won't let me close the account I can go to my bank and have all payment for the service stopped (worst case - I can get a new credit card or account to stop the direct debit). Why would I want to pay an additional monthly fee for the car.

I don't think the car manufacturer is going to pay a fee for every one of their cars manufactured especially as they have no way of knowing when the car is no longer "on the road" and will have to pay for the service "forever".

I can see a booming "After Market" switching the component with the SIM between different cars to give false information.

Re: Magic Smoke

Years ago my father had me convinced that electronic items worked on "Magic" smoke and that once the smoke was let out the item stopped working (I was 5 or 6 at the time). He also told me that electronics technicians would repair things by putting the smoke back inside.

Conicidence...

Last week must have been the week for UPSs to blow up. I came into work and thought I could get a whiff of something but it was just a hint... A couple of hour later the smell suddenly got much worse. My immediate thoughts were the server room (I have access as I am the local eyes and hands for our remote monitoring group) but inside there was no smell at all. (It has its own filtered air-conditioning system not connected to the main building system). Back outside the smell was definitely getting worse. I managed to track it to the Battery room for our UPS (worst mistake was opening the door). That let the smell through main air-conditioning system. It took all day for the smell to be filtered out.

Quick call to the on-site building manager to get the battery bank isolated and disconnected. Urgent calls to suppliers for replacement batteries. Several days with no UPS. Finally UPS is back up and working.

Re: NBN a fizzle

Years ago I tried to get access to Telstra's cable which ran outside my front door. I was told "No. We don't have a cable server in your area and we are not rolling out any more at this stage".

Now I am in a new area. There is no cable TV in my street. I am lucky to get 8Mbps from my ADSL 2+ and only get that because I discovered that the second phone line is not pair gain (Telstra told me I couldn't have ADSL2+ when I knew the previous owner had had it) because they were only looking at the "primary" line to my place. I was glad when I was able to switch ny services over to my current ISP. I am now paying the same amount I used to pay Telstra for the phone line but I get Phone and Internet.

FTTN NBN over the crappy copper I already have is not going to be much better than I get now. To give me the speeds they are "guaranteeing" they are going to have to replace the copper so why not replace it with Fibre and be done with it rather than doing half the job and having to pay 3-5 times as much down the track when it eventually has to be replaced.

Re: Wanting the Daleks to win

From the story I would guess the fan film was made in the late 70's or early 80's long before James Squire or Matilda Bay came into existence.

There would have been KB, Reschs, Dinner Ale (all now extinct I think) or Tooheys Old. XXXX was almost exlcusively a Qld beer. In those days the only "boutique beers" were imports.

Today if the Daleks wanted to take XXXX, VB, Tooheys or Fosters I would be at the front of the queue ushering them into the breweries and helping them to load up. However, I think I would rather they filled Parliment House and took it with them instead of the Opera House (so long as they took the politicians as well).

This has to be the easiest thing to test for... Put an old style non-programmable Oscilloscope in the room attached to a super sensitive Microphone which can delect untrasonic sounds and look at the resulting trace... Turnoff the PCs and watch the ultrasonics trace "disappear". Turn the PCs back on and watch the ultrasonics reappear.

No value here

I love Telstra's idea of "Cheap".

With my current ISP I get 1000GB of downloads (split across Peak and Off-Peak) for $60 per month and that inclides the phone line rental. If I do manage to exceed the download volume I am throttled to 1Mbps.

13Mbps... I am on ADSL2+ and I am glad to get 8Mbps (average about 7Mbps) connection speed. Friends and co-workers on ADSL get around the same. The only people I know who get better are the ones who have been fortunate enough to get an NBN fiber connection.

Even the connection at work doesn't reach 13Mbps.

I have associates in relatively new estates in Sydney who can't even get ADSL in their estate and are forced to use 3G mobile services as 4G hasn't reached them yet.

They just don't get it

The "music industry", well actually the outdated distribution channels that like to call themselves the music industry, don't get it?

The real reason they don't like advances like the NBN is because it allows the content creators to directly interact with the content consumers and cut out the middle-men (the distributors that like to call themselves the music industry). The increase in broadband availability and speed was a major contributing factor to the increase in on-line sales but somehow making faster broadband more available is going to destroy the industry. The real music industry is alive and well it has just started to realise what consumers of other products have known for a while... if you can cut out the middle man you offer better value so the consumers can save some of their hard earned cash for other things while still giving the content creators the same level of remuneration.

The IPFI and ARIA aren't about protecting the interests of the content producers... they are about ensuring the continuation of the monopoly of the distributors.

Target iOS Target MAC

As summised in the article my first thoughts were that they weren't targeting Macs as such. The real target was iOS developers because (almost universally) iOS development has to be done on Macs. Therefore if you want to get an attack vector through to iOS (where the real money would be) tagret the tools the developers use and have them build your attack vector (inadvertently) into their Apps.

Re: 1080p _is_ low resolution

In 2000 I had an IBM A20p laptop with a 15 inch 1400 x 1050 resolution screen. 13 years on and the resolution you get is 1920 x 1080. Manufacturers have not really advanced screen technology in 15 years. I have 21 and 26 inch CRT monitors with better resolutions.

The Australia tax rises its ugly head yet again.

I want to know how Microsoft can justify the 60% premium on the cost of this in Australia. If I login to the HUP site and enter the code for my employer then change the country from US to AU to NZ I get different pricing based on the country. Microsoft (and other companies) claim (in a governmental pricing enquiry) that it is all to do with the size of the Australian market and the costs that implies. If that is the case then why is it that the cheapest place to get the software is NZ (the smallest market) where it costs $NZ9.95 (~$AU8)?

Climate Change claims its first victim.

The news through today from the IPCC is that Sandy Island in the Pacific Ocean is confirmed to be the first low lying island to succumb to the global rise in ocean levels due to the effects of Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC).

The island, last recorded to have been seen by the whaling ship "Velocity" in 1876, is said to have been a very low level island at risk of innundation. Recent surveys of the area have confirmed the disappearance. IPCC sources state the their Global climate model successfully predicted that this island would be the first to be swamped by the rising seas although it cannot give an exact date as to when the island would have been submerged.

The UNFCCC and IPCC did confirm that they are closely monitoring a number of other low level islands but would not divulge the name or location of those islands.

Hows about we drop the asteroid somewhere where it can wipe out the source of a lot of hot air say the European Parliment or Washington DC. It can then solve the problem with the climate change lobbyists at the same time...

Old hat

I remember reading a Sci-Fi novel years ago (can't remember the title or author) about a scientist who proposed a very similar idea and was discredited.

Later he learned of an asteroid on a collision course with earth and tried to get the governments to paint the asteroid white and blast it with high-powered lasers. He was fired and took a job on the moon in an automated mining operation which had on-site manufacturing. He set the automated plant to making lots of high-power solar powered communications lasers and then fired them at the approaching asteroid to deflect it using light pressure.

Same basic principle. His prize should be stripped from him for "prior art".

Another thing that has been missed...

Not only did Microsoft fail to comply with the agreement they actually filed submissions to the courts specifying that they were complying with the agreement during the period when they were non-compliant.

M$ should be slammed for making a false declaration to the courts. Who in their right mind would make a legal filing about something that can be easily checked without actually checking. There should also be punitive fines against the M$ official who made the declaration of compliance.

Why I want my optical drive

I have just boarded a plane with the latest release Blu-ray (missed the movie in the cinemas) that I purchased in the airport that I am transiting through. I purchased it here because the slack and idle media companies haven't released it at home yet. I don't have time to download it from the internet (and can't do that at home because the media company says it is not available in my region at this date) and will want to watch it on my home theatre when I get home.

I want to watch it on the plane/train/ferry/(whatever mode of transport you like to substitute) and I am now expected to not only balance the laptop on my knees to watch it I also have to balance the external Blu-ray player somewhere as well.

Moe than once I have decided against a particular hardware purchase because the devices I needed to use had to be external when other brands/models offered the feature I needed internally.

As to the image projected by the "cutesy" design... It is totally ruined by having to plug in the external player. As to the idea of having to go around the back of the damn thing to plug in the SD card or USB stick... That is totally tacky and to have yet another box (or 2) hanging off the screen to accomodate the card reader and USB hub - more design fail.

Toy box

Somewhere in the toy box from my youth I still have the Scalextric slot car set from Goldfinger. It is complete with the rock in the middle of the track to trigger the ejector seat on the Aston Martin DB5. The original passanger is still there. The Black Mercedes is there as well. I still bring the slotcar set out every now and then and set it up and play (especially when I have friends over for drinks and to watch the F1 or V8s).

I also currently drive an E38 series 740iL (1998 model, 3rd owner, 285000 km) . It is still as solid as the day it was made. A mate has a 750iL that has over 300000km on the clock and it is still smooth and quick.

Round them up and take them to a departure point from the country. Give them a list of Muslim countries that have blocked Youtube (or had google do the blocking) and point them to the ticket office and suggest they buy a ticket to the country of their choosing that fits their "moral compass".

The funniest thing is if there hadn't been protests I would have not known of the video and wouldn't have gone looking for it.

For a "company" (troll) that supposedly licensed the technology for $750,000 they could use some of that to invest in their website. I have seen better sites designed by 6 year olds. Their "portfolio" page says "Click below to view" but when you look at the souce for the page there are no links to the US Patent Ofice. Their "Licensing" page has a number of "defaults" where contact information would normally be (Phone and Fax No for example).

If this is the best they can afford I wonder how they can afford lawyers to enforce their patents (or do the lawyers take all of the income and leave nothing for the company to improve their image/reputation).

About time the networks provided material in a timely manner. 05:10 am is early (especially on a Sunday) but I will be up to watch this. I would be happy to wait until the "next available" regular timeslot for the latest episode (ABC airs Doctor Who at 7:30pm Monday to Friday on their #2 channel - Channel 22). I could wait 38 hours to see it.

Providing the episodes in the timely manner will mean that many people won't bother to download them from the pirate sites. It is the episodes that are delayed weeks or months that send people looking for them from the pirate sites. I hope the ABC decide to air the complete season in a similar timely manner.

The best part is that being the ABC (non-commercial, government owned and run) there should be no ads during the show and no trailers as the ABC usually show the eposides without them.

"Fruity fanbois might also find broad lines to read between, given the allegedly imminent announcement of a new iPhone"

Given that the current fruity phone can not connect to the Big T 4G network (the fruity company was hauled over the coals and fined by the advertising watchdog for invalid/misleading 4G connectivity claims a while ago) one wonders if the new fruity phone will be capable of connecting... or if they will mysteriously go off the air when the NextG network is shutdown in metro areas.

"but also means Big T is not so keen on taking the new network into places were population densities – and revenue opportunities – are lower"

<sarcasm on>

But if you ask opponents of the NBN they will tell you that private enterprise will provide high speed connection to all.

<sarcasm off>

Of course Big T want to have their 4G network cover the maximum number of people for the minimum cost so they can gouge every last cent for an inferior overpriced service before the NBN makes them provide a decent service at a decent price.

Not only software and IT services

Have a look at clothing.

If I log into Sears in the US saying I am from the US Levi 501 jeans are $US45-$US50 (with the current exchange rates this would be around $AU44-$AU49). If I say I am from Australia the option to view and order Levi 501s from then Sears website is removed. If I search Australian sites Levi 501s are $AU110-$AU150.

In the US there are various fitting lengths In Australia there is only one length.

Levi setup "exclusive" distribution rights for an Australian company and restricts official sellers in other countries from selling on-line and shipping to Australia to protect their monopoly. I wonder what training/warranty infrastructure a clothing company needs to setup to justify 100% retail price markups?

A few years ago the parallel import laws were changed to reduce the cosy "exclusive" import license monopoly a number of companies setup to gouge the Australian consumer. I have a friend of mine who saw a niche. He was able to import a UK product from a supplier in the US and sell them in Australia to his retail customers (and make a good profit) cheaper than the "official" distributor could buy them from the UK parent company. The "oficial" distributor could only buy from the UK parent and because the volume was low they got very little discount. The US supplier was the largest customer of the UK company and got good volume discounts which they passed on to their customers (including my mate who was the largest customer of the US supplier for this particular product). He provides the warranty cover for the products he ships. He has also been known to supply the "Official" distributor when the "Official" distributor was out of stock and unable to get stock quickly from the UK company.

Nothing new for Apple...

I watched recently as a friend of mine was bewildered by differential pricing. When he went to download a TV episode to his Apple TV he was offered one price, when he went to his iMac and then to iTunes he was offered exactly the same episode for a different price. After a little experimentation we found that invariably downloading directly to the Apple TV box was more expensive.

This is an example of Apple using the same "lazy" attitude to their advantage. People were most likely to pay extra to download to the Apple TV box rather than getting up and going to their Mac and downloading to iTunes then streaming it to the Apple TV box.